Medication Error in Hospitals and Effective Intervention Strategies: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Medication error (ME) posing a challenge to health care systems across the world; which is posing a challenge to health care systems across the world which has increased the risk of death of patient also the consumption cost approximately $42 billion annually in healthcare expenditure. Different types of interventions; including manual physician order reviews and electronic prescription order entry have been proposed as potential solutions to help combat this issue. Objective: To analyze clinical studies on medication errors to assess implemented intervention strategies and measured outcomes, to determine the effective intervention practices with reduced medication errors. Methods: Analysis of meditational error achieved through a systematic review. A search of PubMed was conducted to identify research studies on ME published between May 1960 and June 2017 in English. Result: The types of interventions discussed by computerized physician order entry (CPOE), Pharmacist and computerization, Automatic dispensing cabinets, and bar-coded assisted medication. The number of effective interventions used was [85%, 17/20] decreased the proportion of medication error while [15%, 3/20] interventions, recorded an increase in the proportion of medication error. The CPOE was found to intercept the highest of error [96%] followed by computer-assisted prescription [86%] and Clinical Pharmacist intervention [80%]. Conclusion: Most of the interventions used were found effective in reducing the occurrence of medication errors. The most common intervention used was CPOE by Clinical Pharmacist and Computerization; which was the most effective intervention strategy, followed by Clinical pharmacist, computerization, Automatic dispensing cabinets, and bar-code.